A couple are to face court in The Hague on 16 July after the body of their newborn baby was found in a canal on Monday. The child had been killed, the public prosecutor said on Thursday. The woman, 18, and her boyfriend, 20, have been under suspicion since the baby disappeared in December.

Rosenthal doesn’t want ministerial post

Senator Uri Rosenthal of the Liberal VVD party indicated on Thursday he did not want to succeed junior minister Annette Nijs who was forced to resign Wednesday after publicly criticising her boss, Education Minister Maria van der Hoeven. Political sources in The Hague have earlier indicated to journalists that Rosenthal, 59, a professor of public administration at Leiden University, is the front-runner for the post of State Security at the Ministry for Education.

Court confirms Ahold blackmail sentence

Arnhem Court has confirmed the four-year jail term imposed earlier on a 30-year-old man involved in an attempt to blackmail retail giant Ahold. The court convicted the man, identified as J van Z, of attempted blackmail and attempted murder charges. Together with a co-defendant, E. W., 33, he demanded EUR 5 million from Ahold. To force the company to pay, the pair fired randomly at houses and at a Albert Heijn supermarket in Zwolle last year. The court did however confirm not guilty verdicts in relation to shooting at two houses in Deventer and Zwolle. E. W. was previously jailed for nine years.

PKK official ends hunger strike

Nuriye Kesbir – a leading member of the outlawed Kurdish militant movement formerly known as the PKK – has ended her hunger strike in a Dutch jail, her lawyer said Thursday. She called off her hunger strike after the United Nations advised the Netherlands not to go ahead with her extradition to Turkey where she faces terrorism charges. A Dutch court earlier granted an extradition order despite claims she would face torture if returned to Turkey.

Choirmaster  jailed for child porn

A court in The Hague jailed Ton Buitinga, 62, for 15 months on Thursday for possessing and disseminating child porn. Buitinga was the choirmaster of the well-known youth choir De Buddy’s.

[Copyright Expatica News 2004]

Subject: Dutch news